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New neighbourhood – Limehouse Marina

LONDON– About three weeks ago I moved from a somewhat crummy flat to a nicer one in Limehouse Marina. I have lived in a few different places since I arrived in London. I started out in a bedsit in Chelsea. The location and apartment were fantastic and the fellow roommates were really wonderful. However, I didn’t last long there because the landlady, who also lived with us, was a cranky old thing who got angry a lot and it just became quite unpleasant to live with her.

From there I hurridly moved in with a mother and daughter in a government house in Pimlico. It was okay. It was cheap. In many ways better than the warring live-in landlord I had had in Chelsea. But the downside was that this pair were proper dirty. I ended up leaving for various reasons and found a place in Clerkenwell. I stayed here for five months and although my roommate was lovely and often hung over as she recovered from a failed marriage, it was actually the five mice that we had running around our apartment that finally made me want to get the hell out of dodge. So I did.

It took me a while to find a new place actually. I had wanted to stay in the Clerkenwell area as it’s got a lot going on and is trendy and arty too(has a Tribeca feel to it). But the demand was so high and time was running out to find a new place to stay. I finally found a room sharing with a couple in Limehouse. It’s ended up being great.

I’ve been here for a few weeks and the couple, Zuzanna and Indie (that’s an abbreviation for his real name which I can’t spell or pronounce) and I get along well. The flat is modern, clean and has great plumbing. A word of warning to people looking to live in London. If you want to stay in a place that is old and full of character be prepared for 1) poor heating and 2) poor plumbing. After having spent various periods of time in old Victorian flats, I was very keen to find something new and modern.

So now I live a two minute walk to the DLR station and door to door it’s probably 18 minutes to work. I’m excited to be living in Limehouse. So much so that I wanted to share a few pictures with you of my neighbourhood. What do you think?

I really like this old building. I think it would be so cool to live here.

There aren’t a lot of these types of buildings left in the area. Many have been pulled down and have been replaced by modern flats.

The area was once used by seagoing vessels to offload cargo so you see a lot of relics from the trading days. Now its mostly luxury flats and a lot of people keep boats in the marina.

As always, I love the flowers.

This is part of a walk that takes you through the area along the canals.

I have just been watching a program called “London on Film” on BBC which is a compilation of historic footage and might have some glimpses of how the marina used to be. The 3 episodes are still on iPlayer if you’ve not not seen them before, I thought they would be right up your street (excuse the pun!).